Santander shocked the City last years after beating out its rivals to snap up TSB Bank. Now with the takeover complete, who are the major players in the sector? The near £3bn mega-merger of Santander and TSB has finally reached completion. And with it, Spanish-owned Santander is set to significantly
Samuel Norman
Friday 01 May 2026 11:42 am
Santander shocked the City last years after beating out its rivals to snap up TSB Bank. Now with the takeover complete, who are the major players in the sector?
The near £3bn mega-merger of Santander and TSB has finally reached completion.
And with it, Spanish-owned Santander is set to significantly beef up its UK presence and climb its way up the nation’s league table.
When news emerged last year that TSB was up on the auction block, industry giants quickly circled the high street unit in hopes of beeing up their market share.
But it was Santander that was able to seal the deal in a major sign of its commitment to the UK banking scene.
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Below, we take a look at the top players in the retail banking landscape.
Lloyds holds the crown
Despite the mergers and acquisition market ramping up and challengers clawing at the incumbent’s market share, Lloyds has managed to hold onto its title as the UK’s biggest retail bank.
The blue-chip finance giant – which includes the flagship title Lloyds Bank as well as Halifax and Bank of Scotland – boasts around 26m customers in the UK and also holds around a fifth of the mortgage market.
Because of this, it’s no surprise when disruptors look to make an impact, they fire their biggest shots at the top player in the game.
In its first advertisement after clinching a licence, Revolut used Graham Norton trotting on an obedient brown steed to take a jab at Lloyds, famous for its black horse branding.
Nationwide too has weighed into the mud-slinging, with posters in its branches encouraging members to ditch their Lloyds account as the group closes its in-person sites.
Read more Santander names new TSB boss ahead of takeover Nationwide’s Virgin Money sends it up the leaderboard
Nationwide’s takeover of Virgin Money might have sparked controversy amongst its members, but it took Debbie Crosbie’s building society giant to a top spot in the retail banking league table.
Ahead of the tie-up, Virgin Money – which was founded by Sir Richard Branson in 1995 – was the sixth-largest bank in the UK and listed on the FTSE 250 index.
The deal forged the second-largest mortgages and savings group behind Lloyds and ahead of Natwest.
The mutual has around 16m members and customers and has been a consistent winner amidst the current account switching war.
In the final three quarters of the year, Britain’s biggest building society clinches its highest net gain for the year at 64,257.
Santander swinging with TSB
Following the completion of its TSB takeover, Santander has leapfrogged to the country’s third biggest bank for current accounts and fourth for mortgages.
When it was announced last July, the bank expected to add TSB’s five million customers, £34bn in mortgages and £35bn in deposits to its portfolio.
Numerous firms were speculated to be circling TSB as the UK’s banking giants looked to bulk up their competitive edge last year.
Banking analyst John Cronin told City AM at the time that Barclays was bound to be “sore that it didn’t manage to seal the deal” but speculated pricing may have been the determining factor.
Other major consolidation moves in the last few years have included Barclays’ £600m takeover of Tesco’s banking arm last year, which allowed it to return £700m to shareholders through an incremental share buyback. HSBC also renewed its partnership with M&S banking arm in 2024, which allows the grocer to leverage its credit offering.
Read more Santander hits pause on €5bn buyback after US takeover
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